Spirit Doll Transformations

"The doll is symbolic homunculi, little life. It is the symbol of what lies buried in humans that is numinous. It is a small and glowing facsimile of the original Self. Superficially, it is just a doll. But inversely, it represents a little piece of soul that carries all the knowledge of the larger soul-Self.In the doll is the voice, in diminutive, of old La Que Sabe, The One Who Knows..In this way the doll represents the inner spirit of us as women; the voice of inner reason, inner knowing and inner consciousness." Dr. Clarissa Pinkola, Women Who Run With Wolves

Doll-making is an ancient creative form that touches the souls of women. Through the delicious act of creation, you will reawaken to yourself and experience a deep transformation. You will feel her in your body. She is your direct connection to spirit; she will guide you, speak to you, be your inner strength. She is your loving, spiritual guide whose wisdom you can rely on and trust. She is your higher self. She will unwaveringly be on the journey with you. She is your touchstone of identity.Marlene Field

Willow of Immortality by Lili McGovern

From Laura Power on Pinterest: What is a Spirit Doll? Spirit dolls are representations of something one wants or needs. First used by ancient peoples, dolls were fashioned out of simple materials like wood, hides, stone and leaves. They represented deities, spirits, or simply something of necessity. Ceremonies with dancing and feasting would be performed on special dates in honor of each doll. Kachina dolls of the Southwest Hopi Indian tribe are examples of spirit dolls.From Marlena Fields, PCC: Spirit Dolls are messengers you make with your own two hands… and they speak to you of just exactly what you need to hear to thrive in new, more confident ways...as we move through difficult situations like:

a re-evaluation of a relationship; a separation; a divorce

career transition; loss of a job

illness – our own or someone close to us

grief; heartache

the challenges of building or redesigning a business

...we often become disconnected from ourselves, from our essence. Everything we experience is a teacher. It is important that we have a way to come back to our center, to be in touch with our inner guidance, to connect with who we are. As we recognize our inner strength, we can more easily move through the process. We can draw on our inner core and recognize our own resilience. Then, we can go out and do what we need to do with greater confidence, grace and ease. What I’ve seen is that every woman has options. Once you pause long enough to reflect on your inner knowing, you can find your own answer in your heart. You have the ability to reconnect with yourself in a way that will help you unlock what has been keeping you stuck. You will look at what no longer fits or serves you and begin to make choices from a place of personal power and self responsibility. Your spirit doll will support you to make decisions that are the right ones for you.Your spirit doll holds your essence. You will discover the magnitude of your full, true self. Your answers will come from a place of inner wisdom. This is a healing experience of self acceptance.

From Conscious Art Studios: The Wisdom Keepers are Contemporary Folk Art Dolls and Figurative Sculptures that are meant to Empower, Inspire, Enlighten, and Entertain the woman's spirit.

From Earth Angels Art: A spirit doll can be an amulet or a talisman. Protection or to attract positive energy. Making your own spirit dolls are so much fun and wildly creative! Magical, sweet, intuitive and inspiring... spirit dolls are made unique for each person. They represent the healing that the person needs at the time. Whether it is comfort, love, strength, laughter, joy, protection or transformation to be able to move forward in their life.

Well, I didn't. Until I started setting up an account on Mad Mimi. It's a pretty cool little feature on blog posts--have you noticed that little icon that says, "RSS Feed" off to the side by "Archives" and "Categories"? If you click on it, you can get blog posts as they are published sent automatically to your Inbox in Outlook Express and other places I presume. So, it may sound ignorant of me but now I know and if you didn't, now you can subscribe easily to your favorite blogs, too....like mine! ;)From Outlook:RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way for content publishers to make news, blogs, and other content available to subscribers. You can add your favorite RSS Feeds as subscriptions in Microsoft Outlook. Get started Using Outlook to subscribe to an RSS Feed is quick and easy and does not involve a registration process or fee. After you subscribe to an RSS Feed, headlines will appear in your RSS folders. RSS items appear similar to mail messages. When you see a headline that interests you, just click or open the item. To learn more about RSS read Subscribe to an RSS Feed.

Owning and making Spirit Dolls has awakened a lovely healing process for me after my mother's death and I became passionate about sharing this experience with others. So I opened a store on Etsy to make these little healers available to those in need of some light. My fellow artist and dear friend, Brigit Snyder, also opened her store around the same time and one big question we both struggle over is how to price our Spirit Dolls on Etsy. She and I have talked with other artists about this subject and we've found that prices are all over the board. They range from $15 on up, some even $1000's of dollars. Ruminating on this subject, I came across an article on Etsy about how to price retail items. My dolls are priced on average $50-$150 for a one-a-kind mixed media art doll, which seems to be about the average for similar dolls but I had to see for myself how close that is to what the actual product is worth according to this formula. If you're not into formulas, numbers and accounting, you may want to scroll down to the *** section.

Queen of Sheba by Lili McGovern $59.99

Here's the formula:

For retail items: (hourly overhead + production cost + profit) x 4

So, I plugged in the numbers for fun...

Hourly Overhead: is computed by taking your business expenses over the last 12 months divided by the hours you expect to be able to create in that period of time. Here's an approximate list of my business expenses as a sole proprietor:

Use of 1 room for doll making or 1/5th of my home for studio/office use $550/yr. ,

That's all I can think of right now. So that come to $7350/ yr. My average working time is 24-36 hours per week or 1248 hours per year. So the total is $7053.50 / 1248 hours = around $5.60 / hourly overhead.

Profit: the markup that you build in to grow her business. Let's just say $5/doll...

Now that we have all the numbers let's plug them into the equation:(hourly overhead $5.60 + production cost $135.00 + $5.00) x 4 = $582/doll

Silvermist by Lili McGovern $149.99

*** Well, that number feels like how much a doll is worth equal to my efforts, unique creative style and the little piece of me that goes into each doll and it's on par with some gallery artists who charge at least that much for a painting or mixed media piece (and much more)....BUT, I don't know how many dolls I'd sell charging that much. It does put things into perspective for pricing a Spirit Doll with the objective of making a living from that endeavor. Also, I've noted that while other doll artists on Etsy charge over $200 / doll, they only have a few sales / year or even one sale / year. I don't think it's a stretch to say that most of these artists are not making a living selling Spirit Dolls but I may be wrong. So assuming I don't want to make a living at it (although it would be nice), my goal is to get these dolls into the hands and hearts of those moved by my work and who feel a connection with these healing Spirits. I feel it's definitely a calling and a labor of love. And, if indeed, these little dolls help one to regain emotional health, like they did for me, then let's compare those costs: Traditional therapy at $240/hour 1 or 2X / week, vs. a 1-time purchase of a Spirit Doll at $150--A Spirit Doll is a mental health bargain! If you can find one for $50, considering each doll is hand-crafted and is the only one in existence, plus the fact that a doll will last a lifetime if properly taken care of and can be passed down through generations, that's a steal! If you find a Spirit Doll for $15 (and I have), then I start worrying a bit for the artist -- do they undervalue their work or themselves as artists OR are they simply compelled to do the work no matter the cost? Every artist has a unique talent and perspective that only they can bring to their art. I think it's important to value that vision and talent both for the artist and the buyer. We tend to value those things we pay a higher price for and they become more meaningful, too. I found 3 great tips from yet another article on Etsy regarding pricing your items when you are the creative person doing the work and possibly undervaluing what you do:

Challenge yourself to charge a price that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable. Chances are, if you’re like most creatives, you are possibly underpricing your work. Really consider putting a price tag that pushes you up against any fears you’re having – a price that challenges you to dream bigger.

Think about what sort of clientele you want to attract. As creatives, we often think that our only audience are people much like ourselves – people who don’t likely have a ton of money. If you’re constantly pricing your work for that audience, then you’ll likely never be able to successfully raise your prices. Instead, consider that there are other audiences out there that would be more than willing to pay a lot of money for your original work – people who likely have more money than you!

When you underprice your work, you’re sending the message that it’s not the best quality; that’s it’s cheap. Our work is an undeniable reflection of who we are. How seriously cool and valuable and unique is that? Let’s make sure we’re treating ourselves fairly and with respect by not underpricing our creativity.

How much is happiness worth to you? According to the above formula for pricing retail articles on Etsy, many artists do not charge what their doll actually costs them in either production costs, time or profit margins, including myself because they undertake the process as a labor of love and for the satisfaction of helping someone experience a unique kind happiness and healing. Getting even one doll into someone's hands who's in need of some healing makes it all worth the time, sacrifice and effort. At least it does for me. I'd rather sell 10 dolls at $40 each than 1 doll for $400. I guess that sums it up right there. You can't put a price tag on happiness...or can you?

P.S. If you're an artist on Etsy, I'd love to hear your process in pricing items in the comments section. Also, I just discovered another formula from another article on Etsy--my head hurts from my previous calculations so I'm giong to pass on doing this one but just in case you're interested here it is: Materials + Labor + Expenses + Profit = Wholesale x 2 = Retail

Shamanism is the path to knowledge which is gained through experience of many aspects of life, such as rituals, ceremonies, prayer and meditation, trials and tests. It is the practice, or discipline of interconnectedness and unlimited potential; which can create a total transformation of self. shamanicjourney.com

While attending the Alaska Midnight Sun Songwriting Camp in 2002, the same year he later died, I was able to participate in two Shamanic Journeys led by the late musical genius Dave Carter. His music has a way of burrowing into your soul. In his own words, "Thinking about Gods and Goddesses..my thoughts often wander in that direction." I found an apt experience by another fan of his art, "Last Samhain my wife and I were trying to come up with a song to sing near the end of our Samhain Ritual...After some thought and search through our music collections we both arrived at the same conclusion: “How about Dave Carter’s Gentle Soldier of My Soul?” As soon as we said it we knew it was the right choice, and indeed it worked perfectly. We needed a song about loss, redemption, triumph, love, and all with a few allusions to the natural world, and there it was." Jason Mankey Dave's performing partner, Tracy Grammer has this to say about Dave, "Part of his academic background was in transpersonal psychology, and he was actually trained in mining the dream realm, so he really knew how to go down that route almost like it was a shamanic journey." These two wild and wonderful 'journeys' filled my soul with happiness. I re-experienced a few past lives, journeyed to the heavens, flew across the ocean and descended through several layers of underworlds. I even commissioned the lovely artist, Katzinn, to interpret these visions and incorporate them as part of my first cd cover. The visuals and concepts amazed and frightened me, but continue to inspire me in my current work as a Spirit Doll artist

It was my mom who introduced me to all things magical like gnomes & fairies, tarot, the ouija board, witchcraft and spell-casting; She religiously laid out her Chinese fortune-telling cards, Gong Hee Fot Choy every week for years and years. She was always searching for the intangible ingredient that would make her often harsh reality meaningful. These Spirit Dolls that I'm creating have been one of the ways I've been able to make my reality meaningful. Each one reflects a different facet of my personality and experiences. For instance, these two dolls were born from my Shamanic Journeys. In fact, other dolls have their genesis in those journeys, too. Now that I think about it, I'm sure all my dolls are informed from those two exceptional and unforgettable experiences. But the main reason I create Spirit Dolls is because they can be very healing for both the maker and receiver. The spirit manifests how it wants to. It's not about perfection but intention. I can do that. I have a strong determination to help my fellow humans from suffering and each doll contains the intention to bring a little light into someone's life. That's where the magic comes in, allowing someone else to hold that intention and light in their hands and create a relationship with a new facet of their own life, tapping into their own power and determination. That's what my Shamanic Journeys helped me to do, as well as, make Spirit Dolls. I loved discovering Shamanic Journeys and I strongly encourage you to experience one for yourself, as well as, experiencing the haunting music of the late Dave Carter. Here are 3 of my favorite songs of his. This first song, The Mountain was performed by Joan Baez for the Dalai Lama and I also covered it on my debut album.

Linda Clink from Linsart on Etsy.com features a lovely quote on her blog Linsart Creations in Clay: "A person who works with his hands is a laborer. A person who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman. A person who works with his hands, his brain and his heart is an artist" —Louis Nizer Linda, artist and owner of Linsart, has been working with clay for over 9 years. She is a favorite of many artisans who use her clay faces & creations to make cuffs, pendants, necklaces, and more, as well as, Spirit Dolls, like me. She's sold approximately 2900 faces on Etsy, a testament to her passion and success as an artist and business owner. The breadth and variety of her faces and sculptures is astounding. Her faces feature almost every persuasion, expression, color and genre. She also sculpts animals, like cats, owls, fish & horses. She makes Buddhas, goddesses, and dreamcatchers. All of her creations are rife with details and imagination. I love working with her faces to create a Spirit Doll because usually I connect right away this new little spirit. They have such personality and style all on their own. I just discovered that she recently featured an example of my work, Willow of Immortality and Protection, in one of her blogs, The Many Faces of Linsart. She also has examples from a couple of other artists if you'd like to see how they employ her polymer face creations in their work. She also has a second blog, "Linsart Creations in Clay" which features other artists on Etsy and more of her lovely faces. I look forward to using many more of Linda's faces on future Spirit Dolls!